| #1FlatFootAug 02, 2011 13:37:04 | Of the 6 players in my group, one of them (my 13 year old daughter) enjoys D&D most when she is NOT throwing dice at monsters. So I have the beginnings of an idea that I hope will engage her wacky creative side.
A gnome illusionist had double-crossed the party and when they persue him, they will find themselves in his "Illusionarium." This will be structured as a series of skill challenges, some of which will lead to combat, some will dispell the illusions and no combat happens, eventually culminating in a confrontation with the trixster gnome.
So, I'm trying to come up with weird wacky stuff that is still true to D&D - no RL stuff. And i've hit a wall. I know I want the party to be seperated at some point, either physically or as part of an illusion so they have to solve things on their own and get creative - not just "Who's got the best arcana?" Beyond that, I've got nothin.
Any and all suggestions appreciated.
TIA |
| #2ToeSamaAug 03, 2011 0:33:44 | There's no reason to allow Arcana to pierce the illusions if they are of high enough quality to make a skill challenge out of them. Let the success of the skill challenge itself do that. Arcana can contribute to it, but it should have the success limit restricted to 1. Better yet, make Arcana a subskill that provides benefit to other skills instead of providing a success. That way it gives the party hints about how the illusion functions and thus how they can get around it. Depending on the nature of the illusion in question, you may want to make it so that a different knowledge skill provides these benefits for each illusion (such as a wall of invisible energy being an Arcana check, while a illusory monster could be a dungeoneering check). Make sure the illusions are tailored to the players, so that they can overcome them in ways that they have skill with. Each should contain at least one skill that an individual PC excells at, possibly shifting it up from illusion to illusion to keep things fresh and promote the creative thinking as the adventure goes on. Deeper in they go, you may want to stop telling them what skills are best suited towards the skill challenges, or not even tell them that the skill challenge is occuring and let them figure out the way to solve it themselves. The further in they are, you should only offer aid if they are totally stuck.
Happy Gaming  |